Book is a joy to read, to the letter

Like Kit-Kats and campfires, must-read books were meant to be shared. I welcome your suggestions and likewise consider it my civic duty to share one with you — "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.

Don't let the title scare you. The plot has little to do with potato peels. And Guernsey is simply the name of a British island.

Set in post-World War II England, it's the story of a 30-something writer who befriends members of a renegade book club. (Any group that meets in defiance of Nazi rule qualifies as renegade in my book.)

In all fairness, I must confess to purposely not reading it for several years. This had nothing to do with the title — I'm actually quite fond of potato peels.

Rather, I was skeptical of the format. The book is written as a series of letters (or, if you had Mr. Stilwell for English, an epistolary novel). And I'd had an aversion to letters as literature since first thumbing through "Dear Mr. Henshaw" in Waldenbooks as a child.

The paradox of my epistolary aversion is that, aside from novels, I've always adored everything about letters, from the formal salutations to the informal postscripts. I have a box filled with every letter I've received since high school. Consequently, I know firsthand that letters can entertain, inform and console as powerfully as any form of writing.

And yet it took discovering the book I'd been shunning for years had been chosen as this year's One Book One Community selection for me finally to try the fictional letter format. Think of the One Book One Community program as a community-centered Oprah book club minus the car giveaways. I'd read every One Book One Community selection since "Marley & Me" in 2006, and wasn't about to let my irrational aversion ruin my record.

As I like to tell my daughter (typically in the context of vegetables and international cuisine), you can't say you don't like it if you haven't tried it. And so, I learned by trying it that I not only like it, I love it. Shaffer and Barrows deftly combined the wit of Jane Austen, the espionage of Ian Fleming and the World War II history of Stephen Ambrose into one compulsively readable and recommendable novel. The letter format drew me into the story as if I were reading from my own collection.

I see more epistolary novels in my future — "84, Charing Cross Road," a collection of real letters between an American writer and a British bookseller; and possibly even "Dear Mr. Henshaw."

In the meantime, I hope to see you at The Victory on Nov. 16, when Annie Barrows will discuss the book her aunt began as a lifelong dream and she lovingly finished upon her aunt's health decline.Sincerely,

AllisonP.S. If you want your book signed, consider bringing your own pen — the first two Kathryn Stockett (author of "The Help") tried last year malfunctioned and I am partial to purple ink.